Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere shows a handy aspect ratio comparison between Skyfall’s general and IMAX releases. The IMAX (opening a day earlier on 11/8) boasts 26% more visual information on the top and bottom (above). It just so happens that I recently spoke to cinematographer Roger Deakins about shooting Bond digitally for the first time with the Alexa (more on that later) and composing for IMAX.

“We shot 2.35 but because of the size of the chip, you’ve got so much space top and bottom that basically I shot it for both formats,” Deakins explains. “There are one or two shots where I had to put a dolly track in or maybe there’s a boom in shot. But the IMAX was clean and the image quality is fantastic because you’re using the full size of the chip. So I had seen a lot of tests and was blown away by the IMAX. We did a 4K finish and it’s down rez’d to 2K after that. It quite surprised me, the fantastic quality.”

One Response to Deakins Touts Skyfall IMAX

” We did a 4K finish and it’s down rez’d to 2K after that. It quite surprised me, the fantastic quality.”

Still very hard to discern even from the DOP’s comments, if release prints are struck for certain sites and surely not 2k for IMAX? Maybe for 2.35, and are we talking about Digital Projection?
Having seen it tonight in Sydney (biggest screen in the world), I was blown away by the film and the “IMAX experience of Bond, and was quite keen to research the production path.